diff --git a/container/Dockerfile.tensorrt_llm b/container/Dockerfile.tensorrt_llm
index 2605fa3471..2293b6ffb7 100644
--- a/container/Dockerfile.tensorrt_llm
+++ b/container/Dockerfile.tensorrt_llm
@@ -373,12 +373,25 @@ CMD []
 
 FROM ${RUNTIME_IMAGE}:${RUNTIME_IMAGE_TAG} AS runtime
 
+WORKDIR /workspace
+
 ARG ARCH_ALT
 
-WORKDIR /workspace
 ENV DYNAMO_HOME=/workspace
 ENV VIRTUAL_ENV=/opt/dynamo/venv
 ENV PATH="${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin:${PATH}"
+ENV NIXL_PREFIX=/opt/nvidia/nvda_nixl
+ENV NIXL_LIB_DIR=$NIXL_PREFIX/lib/${ARCH_ALT}-linux-gnu
+ENV NIXL_PLUGIN_DIR=$NIXL_LIB_DIR/plugins
+ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\
+$NIXL_LIB_DIR:\
+$NIXL_PLUGIN_DIR:\
+/usr/local/ucx/lib:\
+/usr/local/ucx/lib/ucx:\
+/opt/hpcx/ompi/lib:\
+$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+ENV PATH=/opt/hpcx/ompi/bin:/usr/local/bin/etcd/:/usr/local/cuda/nvvm/bin:$PATH
+ENV OPAL_PREFIX=/opt/hpcx/ompi
 
 # Install apt dependencies
 # openssh-client, openssh-server are needed for OpenMPI
@@ -473,21 +486,6 @@ COPY --from=build /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/flash_attn /usr/local/
 COPY --from=build /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/flash_attn-${FLASH_ATTN_VER}.dist-info /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/flash_attn-${FLASH_ATTN_VER}.dist-info
 COPY --from=build /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/flash_attn_2_cuda.cpython-312-*-linux-gnu.so /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/
 
-# Setup environment variables
-ARG ARCH_ALT
-ENV NIXL_PREFIX=/opt/nvidia/nvda_nixl
-ENV NIXL_LIB_DIR=$NIXL_PREFIX/lib/${ARCH_ALT}-linux-gnu
-ENV NIXL_PLUGIN_DIR=$NIXL_LIB_DIR/plugins
-
-ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\
-$NIXL_LIB_DIR:\
-$NIXL_PLUGIN_DIR:\
-/usr/local/ucx/lib:\
-/usr/local/ucx/lib/ucx:\
-/opt/hpcx/ompi/lib:\
-$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
-ENV PATH=/opt/hpcx/ompi/bin:/usr/local/bin/etcd/:/usr/local/cuda/nvvm/bin:$PATH
-ENV OPAL_PREFIX=/opt/hpcx/ompi
 
 # Install TensorRT-LLM (same as in build stage)
 ARG HAS_TRTLLM_CONTEXT=0
@@ -496,8 +494,8 @@ ARG TENSORRTLLM_INDEX_URL="https://pypi.python.org/simple"
 
 # Copy Dynamo wheels into wheelhouse
 # Copy metrics binary from wheel_builder image, not part of ai-dynamo wheel
-COPY --from=dev /workspace/wheels/nixl/*.whl wheelhouse/
-COPY --from=wheel_builder /workspace/dist/*.whl wheelhouse/
+COPY --from=dev /workspace/wheels/nixl/*.whl /workspace/wheelhouse/
+COPY --from=wheel_builder /workspace/dist/*.whl /workspace/wheelhouse/
 COPY --from=dev /workspace/target/release/metrics /usr/local/bin/metrics
 
 # NOTE: If a package (tensorrt_llm) exists on both --index-url and --extra-index-url,
@@ -508,7 +506,7 @@ RUN uv pip install --extra-index-url "${TENSORRTLLM_INDEX_URL}" "${TENSORRTLLM_P
     if [ "$ARCH" = "amd64" ]; then \
         pip install "triton==3.3.1"; \
     fi; \
-    uv pip install ai-dynamo nixl --find-links wheelhouse
+    uv pip install ai-dynamo nixl --find-links /workspace/wheelhouse
 
 # Setup TRTLLM environment variables, same as in dev image
 ENV TRTLLM_USE_UCX_KVCACHE=1